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The Past Of L.A. Noire: Dark And Murky

We're really liking the look and feel of L.A. Noire and we're anxiously anticipating the big unveiling next month. But as most of you know, this game has had a dark and mysterious past...and perhaps a rockier one than you may have imagined.

Everyone is zeroing in on the new Voracious Sh** Twitter page, which is supposedly the account of a source close to Team Bondi, developer for L.A. Noire. Now, you can go through the dozens of updates and piece together the story but Kotaku has taken the trouble to summarize the entire ordeal. You can read the whole rundown over there but here's the general gist: Brendan McNamara, the creator behind The Getaway and founder of Team Bondi studios apparently had the idea for an "interactive 3D noire" that would "fu***** blow Rockstar out of the water." Now, Sony gave him the opportunity to realize his vision and they started working on this title way back in 2003; at the time, it was supposed to be a launch game for the PlaayStation 3. They figured that three years was enough time. But then, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas released and really sort out of outstripped what the team was working on; therefore, "the present game plan would no longer suffice." It soon began to become obvious that McNamara "had little clue what he was doing and was just following his arbitrary whims."

Then, after coming under the thumb of SCEE once again, they found out that Team Bondi didn't have much to show for over two years of work. And even though they had already dumped $20 million into the project, they were forced to abandon it. Ironically, Rockstar snapped it up in spring of 2006 and McNamara found himself working for his former rivals in the Houser brothers. The teaser they released that year actually wasn't even a teaser at all; it was "a target render done by an art outsourcing film in Sydney." Since that time, "the game has been revamped, ported, and delayed four times." Oh, and the title is actually the result of a typo (as we all should know, it's "noir," not "noire"). How's that for a tumultuous past for a game?

No, it'll not be exclusive. The Agent is the Rockstar PS3 exclusive. And the reason why it is fits neatly into this explanation. Yeah, its just some guy twittering, but it makes a lot of sense. I reckon there is something to it.

Rockstar haven't been an exclusive developer in a long, long time. I'd not expect them to switch to PS3 exclusive when they aren't even the market leader. They are the market loser. Though they are doing better recently.

It is hard to say what will happen. Sony pulled out, Rockstar are now publishers. Development is ongoing, so the nature of whatever deal was made is all guesswork by us.

In the name of speculation, though, Rockstar promised one exclusive, which is The Agent. But, yes that hardly would cover 20 million dollars. I think it'll be interesting to see what happens between Rockstar and Sony in future.

I can't really see Rockstar taking on such a big debt without some sort of plan though. Why would a publisher take on such a big debt to one of the big three? There is a lot more going on here than we know about. That is for damn sure.

Yeah, you knew some bad stuff had to be going on behind the scenes for a game to take THIS long to surface. It's one of these great concepts -- you run around a film noir world! -- that just begs to be made into a game. But I would imagine under the best of circumstances with a crack design team, getting the true film noir feel, and not just making a subpar GTA knockoff,would be tough to pull off. Really pulling for this one.

"They figured that three years was enough time. But then, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas released and really sort out of outstripped what the team was working on"...............This is the same fate I feel MAG has suffered, it took too long, it shoulda been out before MW2, now its like people are perfectly fine with Ghost,Price,Foley & squad.

The Houser brothers recruiting the Team Bondi leader shows they've been fans of The Getaway. That game to me no matter the mediocre scores was a pretty solid game.

I think they said that Sony ate the $20 mil, not Rockstar, or at least not all of it to Rockstar so they would have started out not in so much debt. Funny that the 'e' in Noire was born from a spelling error...

I fear the same for MAG 'www'. I think people will just wait a month for Battlefield (which the beta was awesome). MAG could have been a big game 6 months ago or maybe later this year. I am probably not going to get it because most friends are just going to wait it out for Battlefield. And I feel like after being in both betas that I too will be all over Battelfield when it's released and will have wasted $60 for one month of MAG.

If any developers are watching, I'm got a great storyline idea for a new IP.

We put out a game about all about the strife associated in the making L.A. Noire.

You play as either McNamara & Team Bondi, against Sony executives, the Houser brothers, and Rockstar's executives.

The game will have lots of drama, emotion & assorted schemes & sabotage in trying to climb your way up the development ladder in order to finish the game in less than 10 years.

FYI: a total of 10 bronze trophies will be awarded, one for each year you're still working on the game, 1 gold if the game ever actually goes "gold",and the platinum if it's well received with at least "9"s by the critics & gamers alike.

contradict much?hes saying the reason LA Noire was a ps3 exclusive is because sony lost 20M as publisher and to recoup their losses 2K agreed to make it ps3 exclusive.but than the story that has been confirmed and has been in articles ever since GTAIV was announced MP is that R* and sony signed a deal for GTAIV to go MP R* had to give sony 2 exclusive new IPs.and one of those was LA Noire.so which one is it?i believe the second one more, only because 1 it sounds more feasible.2 its actually been confirmed.3 its been out there in the open for years, R* confirmed it and has never denied it just like their 50M deal for exclusive DLC.

thats what i hate about the industry everyone has a big mouth, you cant trust anyone, you cant believe what anyone says.if they say the sky is blue make sure you take 5 good looks out your window just to make sure its right.and to add insult to injury developers are constantly contradicting themselves.

"hes saying the reason LA Noire was a ps3 exclusive is because sony lost 20M as publisher and to recoup their losses 2K agreed to make it ps3 exclusive."

Ouch, my head hurts already. Sony pulled funding because the game was clearly going nowhere. They wanted out.

At this stage, the game could be classified as dead. Then, Rockstar came along. Rockstar, not 2K. Rockstar are owned by Take Two. So, once again, Rockstar.

"but than the story that has been confirmed and has been in articles ever since GTAIV was announced MP is that R* and sony signed a deal for GTAIV to go MP R* had to give sony 2 exclusive new IPs."

I have looked online and can only find the promises of one title. Please, if I am wrong, correct me. I have not yet been corrected on this point in any forum/comments section I have been to, so I don't expect to be corrected.

i remember watching a video just after E3 where GTAIV went MP, the question was asked why GTAIV went MP and the answer was for 2 new IPs.than later on in a video interview jack tretton was asked about GTAIV DLC coming to ps3 and he said paid exclusives never stay exclusive and again made reference to the 2 new IPs they were promised.i dunno, maybe im remembering wrong or miss interpreted what was said but im sure in exchange for GTAIV going MP R* promised 2 new IPs exclusive to the ps3.now LA Noire was confirmed to be one of them, and allot of people are saying Agent is the second.now that LA Noire is MP where does that leave the deal, will R* bring in a new IP or water under the bridge.

My only question is why would they keep the 'e'? Just because they didn't want to admit that it was a typo and pass it off as being unique? Perhaps it was already legally registered and they didn't want to deal with the process of changing it.